Autoantibodies refer to antibodies that target self-antigens, which can play pivotal roles in maintaining homeostasis, distinguishing normal from tumor tissue and trigger autoimmune diseases. In the last three decades, tremendous efforts have been devoted to elucidate the generation, evolution and functions of autoantibodies, as well as their target autoantigens. However, reports of these countless previously identified autoantigens are randomly dispersed in the literature. Here, we constructed an AAgAtlas database 1...

Upon infection, an activated CD4(+) T cell produces terminally differentiated effector cells and renews itself for continued defense. In this study, we show that differentiation and self-renewal arise as opposing outcomes of sibling CD4(+) T cells. After influenza challenge, antigen-specific cells underwent several divisions in draining lymph nodes (LN; DLNs) while maintaining expression of TCF1. After four or five divisions, some cells silenced, whereas some cells maintained TCF1 expression. TCF1-silenced cells were T helper 1-like effectors and concentrated in the lungs...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Myocarditis is an inflammatory and autoimmune cardiovascular disease that causes dilated myocardiopathy and is responsible of high morbidity and mortality worldwide. Cortistatin is a neuropeptide produced by neurons and cells of immune and vascular systems. Besides its action in locomotor activity and sleep, cortistatin inhibits inflammation in different experimental models of autoimmune diseases. However, its role in inflammatory cardiovascular disorders is unexplored...

Type 1 diabetes results from chronic autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing beta cells within pancreatic islets. While insulin is a critical self-antigen in animal models of autoimmune diabetes, due to extremely limited access to pancreas samples, little is known about human antigenic targets for islet-infiltrating T-cells. Here we show that proinsulin peptides are targeted by islet-infiltrating T-cells from type 1 diabetes patients. We identified hundreds of T-cells from inflamed pancreatic islets of three young type 1 diabetes organ donors with a short disease duration with high risk HLA genes using a direct T-cell receptor (TCR) sequencing approach without long-term cell culture...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease in which auto-reactive T cells react with self-antigens expressed in the central nervous system (CNS). The main cause of MS is unknown. Nonetheless, the most probable theory is based on molecular mimicry, which suggests that some infections can activate T cells against brain auto-antigens like myelin proteolipid protein (PLP) and initiate the disease cascade. This study is conducted to evaluate the activatory effects of PLP58-74 on T lymphocytes and humoral immunity...

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is expressed during embryonic life and in low level during adult life. Consequently, the CEA is recognized by the immune system as a self-antigen and thus CEA-expressing tumors are tolerated. Previously, we constructed a single chain variable fragment using the 6.C4 (scFv6.C4) hybridoma cell line, which gave rise to antibodies able to recognize CEA when C57/Bl6 mice were immunized. Here, the scFv6.C4 ability to prevent the CEA-expressing tumor growth was assessed in CEA-expressing transgenic mice CEA2682...

Autoimmune diseases arise due to the loss of immunological self-tolerance. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are important mediators of immunologic self-tolerance. Tregs represent about 5 - 10% of the mature CD4(+) T cell subpopulation in mice and humans, with about 1 - 2% of those Tregs circulating in the peripheral blood. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be differentiated into functional Tregs, which have a potential to be used for cell-based therapies of autoimmune diseases. Here, we present a method to develop antigen (Ag)-specific Tregs from iPSCs (i...

Most serum immunoglobulin M (IgM) is "natural IgM", which is produced apparently spontaneously by a distinct subset of B cells requiring no exogenous antigenic or microbial stimuli. Natural IgM is an evolutionarily conserved molecule and reacts with a variety of epitopes expressed on both self- and non-self antigens. It has long been understood that secreted (s) IgM contributes to the removal of altered self-antigens, such as apoptotic and dying cells. As we outline in this review, it is thought that this sIgM housekeeping function removes potential triggers of autoresponse induction...

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes are very informative in population genetics studies and their variability has been widely used to reconstruct the history of geographic and/or demographic expansions of human populations. The characterization of HLA diversity at the population level is also fundamental in clinical studies, particularly for bone marrow transplantation programs. In this study, we investigated the HLA molecular variation in Rio Grande do Sul, South Brazil, in order to identify possible regional differences across this state...

Batf3 is a transcription factor that impacts the development of CD103(+) tissue-resident dendritic cells (DCs). However, whether Batf3 is absolutely required for the development of CD8(+) DCs remains controversial. Id2 is required for CD8(+) DC development. Here we show that bone marrow chimeric mice with a deletion of Id2 in the CD11c compartment lose the ability to reject a skin graft expressing a non-self protein antigen or mount a delayed hypersensitivity response. In contrast, Batf3((-/-)) mice remained competent for skin graft rejection and delayed hypersensitivity, and retained a CD8(+) DC population with markers characteristic of the CD11b(+) DC lineage, including CD11b, CD4 and CD172α, as well as the key regulator transcription factor IRF4, but lacked IRF8 expression...

BACKGROUND: Autoimmune diseases are pathological conditions characterized by abnormal. responses, accompanied by auto-antibodies to self-molecules. The roles vitamin D in autoimmune diseases has increased significantly in the recent past from its functions in calcium and phosphate homeostasis, it is now involved in the regulations and proliferations of Th1 and Th17 lymphocyte. 1α,25(OH)2D3 in very important in ameliorations of inflammatory disorders arising from autoimmune diseases, but the mechanism by which this is done is still a bone of contentions...

PURPOSE: This study presents the experience of a brachytherapy team in Ghana with a focus on technology transfer and outcome. The team was initially proctored by experienced physicians from Europe and South Africa. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 90 consecutive patients underwent either brachytherapy alone or brachytherapy in combination with external beam radiotherapy for prostate carcinoma between July 2008 and February 2014 at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana...

In neutrophils (but also in eosinophils and in mast cells), different inflammatory stimuli induce histone deimination, chromatin decondensation, and NET formation. These web-like structures that trap and kill microbes contain DNA, cationic granule proteins, and antimicrobial peptides, but the most abundant proteins are core histones. Histones contained in NETs have been deiminated, and arginines are converted in citrullines. While deimination is a physiological process amplified in inflammatory conditions, only individuals carrying genetic predisposition to develop rheumatoid arthritis (RA) make antibodies to deiminated proteins...

Graves' hyperthyroidism is caused by autoantibodies directed against the thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR) that mimic the action of TSH. The establishment of Graves' hyperthyroidism in experimental animals has proven to be an important approach to dissect the mechanisms of self-tolerance breakdown that lead to the production of thyroid-stimulating TSHR autoantibodies (TSAbs). "Shimojo's model" was the first successful Graves' animal model, wherein immunization with fibroblasts cells expressing TSHR and a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecule, but not either alone, induced TSAb production in AKR/N (H-2(k)) mice...

It is widely accepted that central and effector memory CD4(+) T cells originate from naïve T cells after they have encountered their cognate antigen in the setting of appropriate co-stimulation. However, if this were true the diversity of T cell receptor (TCR) sequences within the naïve T cell compartment should be far greater than that of the memory T cell compartment, which is not supported by TCR sequencing data. Here we demonstrate that aged mice with far fewer naïve T cells, respond to the model antigen, hen eggwhite lysozyme (HEL), by utilizing the same TCR sequence as their younger counterparts...

: The cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) also known as CD152 (cluster of differentiation 152) is a crucial negative regulator of the immune system. This protein receptor provides negative signals in order to suppress T-cell activation and immune attack against self-antigens, although its role is unclear. The ability of CTLA-4 to limit T cell-mediated immune response has made it a major target in treatment of tumors and autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)...

BACKGROUND: Assembly of recombinant capsid proteins into virus-like particles (VLPs) still represents an interesting challenge in virus-based nanotechnologies. The structure of VLPs has gained importance for the development and design of new adjuvants and antigen carriers. The potential of Tobacco etch virus capsid protein (TEV CP) as adjuvant has not been evaluated to date. FINDINGS: Two constructs for TEV CP expression in Escherichia coli were generated: a wild-type version (TEV-CP) and a C-terminal hexahistidine (His)-tagged version (His-TEV-CP)...